Honey and beeswax are the only products coming back from the bee yard. So, no extra storage space is needed for all that other stuff.

Harvesting Comb

Selection

When conditions are right and a tbh has been appropriately designed and managed for honey production, comb can be harvested from the honey storage area behind the broodnest.

Only combs free of brood and pollen should be selected. Small areas of brood or pollen can be cut out. Or areas of honey can be cut off, leaving the brood and pollen comb attached to the top bar.

Sometimes it’s best to just leave a pollen filled comb as feed for the bees would benefit from it.

Brushing the Bees

After a comb is selected, the bees must be brushed off. Brushing bees is a delicate process and the bees hate being brushed. When it’s done wrong, an angry, sticky mess can result. It’s imperative to:

use a yellow plastic bristle bee brush

never use a horse hair or animal based brush

wear a veil

have a smoker ready

have a bucket of clean water ready to keep stuff clean

keep the bee brush bristles clean, free and pliable

use smoke judiciously to keep bees under control

Before cutting attachments on a comb to be harvested, brush the bees off its exposed surface. Use a quick but gentle flicking motion directed toward the bottom board. The bees that fall there will promptly march toward the front of the hive with little commotion.

Cut the comb free of all attachments. Remove the comb. Hold it close to the bottom board. And brush all remaining bees off. They will march toward the entrance.

Cutting the Comb

Access the comb. Quickly look for any small patches of brood or pollen. These small areas can be cut off and salvaged by the bees. The comb can be further separated into portions that are suitable for comb honey. And the rest can be processed as strained honey. Separate bee tight containers should be available for each:

check again for any stray bees left on the comb

now simply slice off appropriate areas of the comb and put them in the appropriate container

stack the larger comb pieces vertically

for as is honey fill in the empty spaces with smaller comb pieces

for strained honey just fill up the bucket 3/4ths full

for comb honey don’t backfill empty areas with comb pieces

leave a little comb attached to the top bars as a starter strip

cover the container to keep curious bees out

keep hands, tools and brushes clean and honey free

Returning Top Bars

The top bars are returned to the hive and honey production continues.

If it’s the end of the season, the broodnest and feed combs are consolidate near the entrance to mimic a natural broodnest structure. And the empty top bars are placed at the far end of the hive.

Processing the Comb

Use As Is

This is a easy at it gets. All the work is done in the field. Just use the honey comb and honey out of the field bucket as needed.

If wax moths are a problems, put the buckets in a freezer for a week.

Strained Honey

Not everyone prefers comb honey. And not every piece of comb is esthetic enough for it. Fortunately, getting strained honey is easy. First, you’ll need a strainer. They are cheap and easy to build. Check out my Honey Strainer page.

After the honey has been strained, a small amount of foam rises to the top. It can be skimmed off and used for cooking.

But it’s a messy operation and I seldom do it. For me, the additional mess isn’t worth the effort, as I store most of my honey in the buckets. And the small amount of foam doesn’t detract from it’s appearance.

Bottling strained honey requires avoiding the layer of foam. Here’s how to do it:

install a plastic honey gate into a bucket lid

firmly place the lid on a honey bucket

tip the bucket on its side with the honey gate down

allow it to set undisturbed for a few minutes before bottling

fill jars until foam appears

then tip the bucket up

and switch the lid to another bucket and continue

Emptied buckets are inverted and allowed to drain into a single bucket consolidating the foamy honey. I don’t mind the small amount of foam and use this honey for myself. It’s actually a treat!

Cut Comb Honey

Comb and Strained Honey.

The cleanest, whitest, fully capped comb can be prepared as traditional cut comb. There’s much that’s been written about the process. Basically:

comb is cut with a stainless standard sized cookie type comb cutter

the cut comb is allowed to drain

then it’s put into commercial packaging

Every tbh beekeeper should prepare some cut comb for himself. No need for the expensive stainless cutters or the commercial packaging. Just:

use plastic food storage containers

cut a template to match the containers bottom

use a serrated knife to cut the comb to the template

allow the comb to drain on a bakers rake

put the cut comb in the container and store in the freezer

This is absolutely the best tasting honey possible. Probiotic qualities are maintained. And it will keep forever.

Chunk Honey

Chunk Honey.

Chunk honey is a combination of cut comb and strained honey is a single jar. It’s one of the most beautiful ways to pack honey. Much has been written about preparing chunk honey. In addition, here’s what I’ve learned:

use smaller jars as chunk honey is prone to granulate

use a template to cut the comb

rinse all comb in cold water to remove any wax particles

strained honey must be heated or it will quickly granulate

let strained honey thoroughly cool before pouring over comb

pour honey down side of jar to avoid incorporating air into the honey

Beeswax

Comb Remnants

Beeswax.

After straining honey, beeswax comb pieces will remain in the strainer. This strained wax can be feed back to the bees. They remove every trace of honey from it. Or it can be rendered as is. The remnants can also be washed, per Brother Adam, and the resulting syrup used to feed bees or make mead.

Rendering

There’s a lot written about rendering beeswax. So, I won’t go into that here. Most methods involve melting remnants above water or in a double boiler.

It’s a messy business. And it can be dangerous when done wrong. Overheated beeswax can burst into flames. And over heated water, confined below melted beeswax, can suddenly flash into steam, blasted melted beeswax everywhere. Don’t even think about doing it in a microwave!

Some points to think about:

carefully control the temperature when melting beeswax

never use an open flame

have dedicated beeswax rendering equipment

never use the kitchen or kitchen utensils

copper, nickel, zinc and iron discolor melted beeswax

Solar Melter

Consider a solar melter. They are a great tbh accessory which can safely handle those constant small scraps of beeswax and comb accumulate when working tbhs. They:

keep the mess outside

are efficient and safe

require minimal attention/time

can extract wax from dark comb

Filtering Beeswax

Rendered beeswax is usually not clean enough for making candles. It still has too much pollen and propolis which eventually fouls a candle wick.

A grease filter, used to filter hot restaurant deep fat fryer oil, is the best beeswax filter available. They are sold at commercial restaurant supply houses. And cost about 50 cents apiece.